This invention relates to nozzles for ophthalmic dispensers.
Various dispensers for delivering medicament, and other active ingredients, to the eye are known in the prior art. Eye droppers and dropper bottles are used extensively to deliver liquid doses to the eyes of patients. Typical droppers and dropper bottles can only produce dose volumes of certain sizes, with no ability to provide smaller doses. As such, it is well recognized that a large percentage of administered ophthalmic liquid that is administered topically is lost by drainage, either externally or through nasolacrimal drainage.
Dispensers have been developed in the prior art which can generate dose sizes in much smaller volumes than those provided by typical droppers and dropper bottles, such doses being in the range of 5-15 microliters. Dispensers for delivering such doses are known in the prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,435, which issued Oct. 6, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,956, which issued Mar. 16, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,682, which issued Feb. 4, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,622, which issued Feb. 15, 2005; U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,137, which issued on Jan. 31, 2006; U.S. Pat. No. 7,014,068, which issued on Mar. 21, 2006; U.S. Pat. No. 7,073,733, which issued on Jul. 11, 2006; U.S. Pat. No. 7,131,559, which issued on Nov. 7, 2006; U.S. Pat. No. 7,207,468, which issued on Apr. 24, 2007; U.S. Pat. No. 7,261,224, which issued on Aug. 28, 2007; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,651,011, which issued on Jan. 26, 2010. These references are all incorporated by reference herein.
The aforesaid dispensers may achieve microdosing with doses in the range of 5-15 microliters. With such microdosing, concerns exist over repeatability within a target range. With such small doses, slight variability impacts the dose size.